Pterodactyl

I gave a 10 on this movie, even though it's not as good as, say, 13 Monkeys or The Empire Strikes Back. But for a Sci-Fi Channel movie, this is top of the crop, head over shoulders...and so on and so forth. I just want to do some justice for a well-paced, well-produced and well-acted movie -- something I've never done before! Heck, my window curtain was moving just now and I was wondering if it could be a pterodactyl! The U.S. Army does good things (not just one) for once, and although there are the obligatory idiots, the movie is one hell of a ride. I think all but a few of these movies have major plot holes, but this one really does shine through. It's two hours you will definitely not wish go so fast! Now watch your head!

Like Tremors this is not meant to be art it is fun take it as such. it is a parody of this genre which i happen to like. only downer is loss of the geek and goofy blond so early. dialogue is simple and predictable yet watch it for the fun of it and enjoy. when was the last time you saw pterodactyls? the special effects weren't Star Wars but the flying dinosaurs at least didn't look like they were little clay figures. over all this is a movie to watch on a cloudy afternoon and talk back to the characters.

Well, for a supposedly "SCI-FI" film, it was certainly missing the "SCI", which stands for science. If you consider "I" to stand for "Imagination", then it's missing that, too'. So all we got when we got this movie was F. Despite the fact the corporate shills are at it again, giving supposedly good reviews to this ugliness, this movie is yet another piece of trash being offered by the so-called SciFi Channel. This movie featured some of the worst, over-stereotyped characters I've ever seen. If I hadn't seen them so much I would have laughed. But the punchline of this joke is quite stale. The acting was just as bad. Stories like this aren't clever. They don't entertain. There's no eye candy. Only someone with the mentality to laugh at a human body being transected by a cheap CGI effect and say "hey, dude, look at all the blood" would enjoy any part of this movie. Why make things like this? Anyway, something REALLY made me mad in this movie. There was a comment by a character to the order of "I haven't seen so much white since someone streaked at a Farscape convention". How DARE SciFi Channel make fun of Farscape? How DARE they? SciFi Channel took away a beloved series to replace it with this seemingly endless string of decrepit, brain-dead movies aimed at morons, despite the clear proof that Farscape had an audience and was economically viable. What audacity to foolishly mishandle a wonderful show and then make snide remarks. I've heard it said before and now I'm having to agree. The goofs who run the SciFi Channel at present hate SciFi and hold contempt for its viewers! Avoid this trash.

This has got to be the best movie ever made. Coolio shoots down the Pterodactyls with such refined grace and beauty words alone can't describe his swift and beautiful movements. Who knew of the acting potential of such a fine person such as Coolio, until this director came across him. The acting is superb, far surpassing the likes of Forrest Whitaker, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino; making these actors look sub-par. At one point the cast hides in a log cabin and manage to slip past the pterodactyl's attention. This happened despite the fact pterodactyls surrounded the cabin, using awesome CG to show them sticking their heads through the doorway. The plot unfolds itself in a mystifying manner, who knew that pterodactyls would return from extinction and start attacking people. There are about a gabillion good things I could say about this movie, but I think I'll stop here. Do yourself a favor and watch this piece of cinematic artwork make history.

After the last four of five Sci-Fi Channel original movies, I had pretty much given up on them. Some were not only awful, but plain unwatchable. But this one isn't too bad. It aims for a lot of camp, and more or less hits the mark. You've got a few pterodactyl eggs that hatch, and then there's a group of college kids with their professor who happen to be in the area, and Coolio is leading his posse through the woods doing a gang hit...oh wait, he's in the military and they're on a mission. ROTFLMAO. Anyhow, the movie is really campy and is succeeds well at it. There's a beautiful college girl and a couple of really nerdy guys, a professor who more or less knew about the pterodactyls but was happy to risk everyone's lives to get the chance to study them, and another student who is his love interest. Then there's Coolio...what can one say. He speaks a strange mix of military jargon and rapper slang, all the time leaving half the consonants out of his words so it ends up sounding like baby-talk. He's entertaining in his usual really, really stupid sort of way. The special effects were quite good in comparison to some of Sci-Fi's other movies. Well, okay, crayon drawings on construction paper would be quite good in comparison to some of their other stuff, but for a low budget direct-to-cable movie, they were passable. The gore is plentiful and almost hilarious in how overdone it is; one guy gets cut in half and we were wondering if he just drank a couple of gallons of blood before it happened, because it comes pouring out of him. For the good stuff, you've got the aforementioned gorgeous college girl who strips to her undies for a swim in the lake, and let's say the cameraman knows how to film a proper B movie. Her scene with the nerd afterwards is quite funny, she runs away screaming "don't look at my butt!". Overall, not really a "good" bad movie, it would have needed a better performance from the professor character and more than one sexy girl and, well, sorry Coolio but somebody else would have had to play that part. But, it's fairly entertaining and you could do worse.

Expectations are usually low for the Saturday SciFi original movies, and deservedly so in most cases. Pterodactyl won't win any Oscar nominations, but surprisingly it won't garner any Razzies either. The modest budget is apparent in the lack of variety of settings--many scenes take place in an open field--but the pterodactyl special effects aren't half-bad. Not as good as a Jurassic Park, but certainly good enough for a Saturday-night "creature feature" movie. The story is serviceable and the characters are adequate for an action movie. What makes Pterodactyl entertaining is the up-tempo pace. Once the pterodactyls appear (this isn't a spoiler, considering the title and the previews), the action doesn't stop. I just wish we saw more of certain characters and their interactions. The fact that the producers managed to hire some attractive actresses doesn't hurt. Coolio doesn't do much besides yell "son of a b*tch" at the flying creatures and discharge his weapons. No matter. It's a good "B" movie to see on an otherwise uneventful TV night. Not worth going out of your way to watch, but if it's on, and you enjoy monster movies with plenty of action, tune in. 6 out of 10, or B-.

When I saw the preview of this film, I thought, "Another dumb Sci Fi Channel movie. They're rejecting the new DOCTOR WHO series for this?" But then I read a review of it in today's paper that made me decide to watch it anyway and I'm glad I did. The CGI effects were well done (Unlike, say, the Pendragon WAR OF THE WORLDS) and the dialog was hilarious. But the thing that I enjoyed the most were the "Tuckerisms" (Named after Wilson "Bob" Tucker, the famous Science Fiction author and long time fan who liked to use the names of other writers for his characters), with most of the characters named after SF writers> The hero is named Professor Lovecraft and the heroine's last name is "Heinlein" (though it should be pointed out that Robert Heinlein was in the Navy, not the Army) and the troops had the names Zelazny, Clarke, Serling, Yolan, among others. If you get a chance to see this, do so. But don't expect another JURASSIC PARK.

This movie WAS NOT worth the money spent on it. And I can't believe someone actually thought it was worth their time to view it, then recommend it to others. PTERODACTYL was contrived. The characters were utterly clichéd. And the acting was worse than watching President Bush give the State Of The Union address. If you're going to spend a couple of million dollars on a film (and clearly horror movies make their money back like SAW), why not make a GOOD one? Something unique but familiar. Something with a little more class and fun like TREMORS or the EVIL DEAD series. But film companies make mediocrity because they believe the viewers will accept it. That must change.

The characters were terribly written, I never did get their names, they were just "generic nerd" or "stuck-up drama queen". They were all cardboard cut-outs. The plot was completely unbelievable. Why did the us special forces bother trying to save the American students and then try to argue that no, they can't help them out of the forest? Why bother saving them if you're not committed to the idea? The Generic Professer was relying on these kids to help him save his career? He would have been better off looking for another position. And the CGI was obvious. I don't have a problem with good CGI, but here it was impossible NOT to notice how fake everything was.

You don't tune into a movie called Pterodactyl expecting it to reshape your notion of high cinema - you tune in hoping to see a well-made creature feature! And in this regard, Pterodactyl is a guilty pleasure indeed. I admit, I'm a SCI FI Channel movie junkie, and normally because they're so bad they're good. But this one surprised me - it's actually just plain good! Okay, so yes, the military leader is... Coolio. But believe it or not, I thought he did a great job. Overall, the cast is very solid, especially compared to other comparable films - the Raptor Islands and Sabretooths of the world. But what really sets this movie apart is the direction. I wasn't surprised to find out later that a guy with actual credits made this film, and it shows. Mark Lester also directed Commando, Firestarter, and a slew of other films you've no doubt seen and enjoyed. I mean, it's all relative. Is this Jurassic Park 4? No. But is it a lot of fun? Should you watch it if you tend to like these kinds of movies? Does it deliver the requisite gore, thrills, explosions and unrelenting gunfire you'd hope from a creature feature? Hell yes. And it has the greatest special effect of all - hot chicks.